Deaths in the family: Horror visits a Maryland newsroom

June 29, 2018

Again. (Joshua McKerrow / TNS)

Our hearts sag heavy for the five who lost their lives and still others wounded by gunfire in an Annapolis, Md., newsroom kindred to the one in which we write these grieving words. The Capital Gazette happens to share ownership with the Daily News, but more fundamentally we are family as fellow journalists and fellow Americans saddened if no longer shocked that yes, it could happen here.

Editorial page editor Gerald Fischman, Assistant Managing Editor Robert Hiaasen, reporters John McNamara and Wendi Winters and Sales Assistant Rebecca Smith all fell victim to a sick gunman enraged at the paper’s coverage of his harassment of a woman.

Violent attacks on journalists are thankfully rare in America, home to a fiercely free and proud press. Any who exhort violent anti-media animus should be profoundly ashamed.